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History of Golden Globes

The Golden Globe Awards, was rewarded, on Sunday, for the 69th time in History, yet it remains shrouded in mystery for most. Viewers probably don't even know who presents it, how many voting members it has, or what qualifies them to pass judgment on movies and television. Yet movie fans and awards champions continue to take the Globes seriously as a precursor to the Academy Awards, since some of the Globe honorees will indeed go on to win Oscars. The Globes have a colorful history of glamour, scandal, and recognition of some of Hollywood's best work. Here's a list of some of the ceremony's history and it's highlights.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Associated was founded in 1942 and it contained 8 journalists. Today, the members of the association are journalists from 55 countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America and their publications are read by more than 250 million readers. Each year five new journalists are added to the Association.

In the year 1943, the foreign press group held the ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel, but the young group had so little money to stage the event that it solicited actress Joan Bennett's gardener to supply the flowers for the centerpieces.

Each year, the members of the association view more than 300 movies and attend film festivals to discover new and innovating movies.

The Golden Globe trophies are plated with 24 carat gold and they are 25,4 cm tall. At a production cost of 250 dollars for each trophies, the globes are created one every three years and the names of the winners are engraved after they are announced.

The Globes first handed out a career achievement prize in 1952, to legendary director and Hollywood founding father Cecil B. DeMille. The award has been named for him ever since. (This year's DeMille winner is Morgan Freeman.)

Initially, the awards were handed down by journalists, however starting with 1958, when famous artists like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin went on stage, the tradition of celebrities handing down awards was established.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," one of only three films in Oscar history to win the top five awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay), was the first (and only) movie to pull off the same feat at the Golden Globes, in 1976.

Meryl Streep Won The most Golden Globe Awards. The most individual Golden Globe awards, 7, went to actress Meryl Streep, followed by Jack Nicholson, with six awards. Five awards were also won by Francis Ford Coppola and Oliver Stone.

The nominees who refused the Golden Globe award were the producers of the “Z” movie, in 1970, who decided not to accept the award, and Marlon Brando(for Godfather), in 1973, who refused the award to protest against imperialism and racism. Marlon Brando refused the Oscar award the same year.

The Globe voters once nominated a fictional character for a screenwriting award. The nomination came in 2003 for the "Adaptation" screenplay, credited to real-life screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his imaginary brother Donald, both of whom were played in the film by Nicolas Cage. The Oscars later went on to nominate Donald Kaufman as well.

Four years ago, because of the Hollywood writers strike, the Golden Globe AWards were not awarded during a ceremony in Los Angeles. The producers held a press conference, for the first time in history, during which they announced the winners.